1 Kings 8

And it happened, when Salomon had finished building the house of the Lord and his own house, after twenty years, that then King Salomon assembled all the elders of Israel in Sion, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of Dauid — this is Sion.

In the month Athanin.

And the priests took up the ark,

and the tent of witness, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent of witness.

And the king and all Israel were before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen beyond number.

And the priests bring in the ark to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, into the holy of holies, under the wings of the cheroubin.

For the cheroubin had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, and the cheroubin covered over the ark and over its holy things from above.

And the consecrated things projected, and the heads of the consecrated things were seen from the holy place toward the front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside.

There was nothing in the ark except two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, which Moyses placed there at Choreb, which the Lord covenanted with the sons of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

And it happened, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house.

And the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house.

And the king turned his face and blessed all Israel, and the whole assembly of Israel was standing.

And he said: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, today, who spoke with his mouth concerning Dauid my father and with his hands has fulfilled it, saying:

From the day I brought out my people Israel from Egypt I did not choose a city in any one tribe of Israel to build a house for my name to be there; but I chose Jerusalem for my name to be there, and I chose Dauid to be over my people Israel.

And it was in the heart of Dauid my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

And the Lord said to Dauid my father: Since it came into your heart to build a house for my name, you did well in that it came into your heart.

Only you shall not build the house, but rather your son who comes out of your loins — he shall build the house for my name.

And the Lord has established his word that he spoke; and I have risen up in place of Dauid my father and have sat upon the throne of Israel, as the Lord spoke, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

And I have set there a place for the ark, in which is there the covenant of the Lord, which the Lord covenanted with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

And Salomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.

And he said: O Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or upon the earth below, keeping covenant and mercy for your servant who walks before you with his whole heart;

the things you have kept for your servant Dauid my father: you spoke with your mouth and with your hands you have fulfilled it, as it is this day.

And now, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant Dauid my father what you spoke to him, saying: There shall not be taken away from you a man from before me sitting upon the throne of Israel, only if your children keep their ways, to walk before me as you walked before me.

And now, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word to Dauid my father be confirmed.

For will God truly dwell with men upon the earth? If heaven and the heaven of heaven are not sufficient for you, how much less this house that I have built for your name!

Yet you will look upon my supplication, O Lord, God of Israel, to hear the joyful cry with which your servant prays before you, to you, today;

that your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place of which you said, My name shall be there, to listen to the prayer that your servant prays toward this place day and night.

And you will listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, whatever they pray toward this place; and you will listen in the place of your dwelling, in heaven, and you will act and be merciful.

In whatever anyone sins against his neighbour, and if an oath is laid upon him to curse him, and he comes and makes confession before your altar in this house,

then you will listen from heaven and act and judge your people Israel: to condemn the lawless, bringing his way upon his own head; and to justify the righteous, giving to him according to his righteousness.

When your people Israel are struck down before enemies because they sin against you, and they turn back and confess your name and pray and make supplication in this house,

then you will listen from heaven and be merciful to the sins of your people Israel, and you will bring them back to the land that you gave to their fathers.

When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they sin against you, and they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sins when you humble them,

then you will listen from heaven and be merciful to the sins of your servant and of your people Israel, for you will show them the good way to walk in it, and you will give rain upon the land that you gave to your people as an inheritance.

If there be famine, if there be pestilence — for there will be blight — if there be locust or mildew, and if his enemy presses him hard in one of his cities: any calamity, any pain,

every prayer, every supplication that may come to any person, when they each know the affliction of his own heart and he spreads out his hands toward this house,

then you will listen from heaven, from your established dwelling place, and you will be merciful and act and give to a man according to his ways, as you know his heart — for you alone know the heart of all the sons of men —

so that they may fear you all the days that they themselves live upon the land that you gave to our fathers.

And as for the foreigner, who is not of your people — this one also;

and they shall come and pray toward this place;

and you will listen from heaven, from your established dwelling place, and you will do according to all that the foreigner calls upon you for, so that all the peoples may know your name and fear you as does your people Israel, and may know that your name has been called upon this house that I have built.

When your people go out to war against their enemies by the way in which you turn them, and they pray in the name of the Lord toward the way of the city that you have chosen and of the house that I have built for your name,

then you will listen from heaven to their supplication and their prayer, and you will maintain their cause.

When they sin against you — for there is no person who will not sin — and you bring it upon them and hand them over before enemies, and their captors carry them away captive to a land far off or near,

and they turn their hearts in the land where they were carried away, and they turn back and make supplication to you in the land of their exile, saying: We have sinned, we have done lawlessly, we have done wrong;

and they turn back to you with their whole heart and their whole soul in the land of their enemies where you carried them away, and they pray to you toward the way of their land that you gave to their fathers, of the city that you have chosen, and of the house that I have built for your name;

then you will listen from heaven, from your established dwelling place,

and you will be merciful to their wrongs by which they sinned against you and according to all their transgressions by which they transgressed against you; and you will give them over to compassion before those who took them captive, and they will have compassion on them.

For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the midst of an iron smelting furnace.

And let your eyes and your ears be open to the supplication of your servant and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them in everything for which they call upon you.

For you set them apart for yourself as an inheritance out of all the peoples of the earth, as you spoke by the hand of your servant Moyses when you brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, O Lord, Lord. Then Salomon spoke concerning the house, when he had finished building it: He made the sun known in heaven; the Lord said that he would dwell in thick darkness. Build my house, a splendid house for yourself, to dwell in newness. Behold, is this not written in the book of the Song?

And it happened, when Salomon had finished praying to the Lord this whole prayer and supplication, that he rose up from before the altar of the Lord, having knelt upon his knees with his hands spread out toward heaven.

And he stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:

Blessed be the Lord today, who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he spoke. Not one word has failed among all his good words that he spoke by the hand of Moyses his servant.

May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; may he not forsake us nor turn us away.

May he incline our hearts toward himself, to walk in all his ways and to keep all his commandments and his ordinances that he commanded our fathers.

And let these words with which I have made supplication before the Lord our God be near to the Lord our God day and night, to maintain the cause of your servant and the cause of your people Israel, each day's matter in its own day;

so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God — he himself is God, and there is no other.

And let our hearts be perfect toward the Lord our God, to walk devoutly in his ordinances and to keep his commandments, as it is this day.

And the king and all the sons of Israel offered sacrifice before the Lord.

And King Salomon offered the sacrifices of peace offerings that he sacrificed to the Lord: twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. And the king and all the sons of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.

On that day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord, for he offered there the whole burnt offering and the sacrifices and the fat of the peace offerings; because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to be able to hold the whole burnt offering and the sacrifices of the peace offerings.

And Solomon kept the feast on that day, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hemath as far as the river of Egypt, before the Lord our God, in the house which he had built, eating and drinking and rejoicing before the Lord our God seven days.

And on the eighth day he sent the people away and blessed them; and they went, each to his own tent, rejoicing and with a glad heart over the good things which the Lord had done for David his servant and for Israel his people.